Meditate with Maurice Denis (1870-1943)

The man advances slowly, a stick in his hand, after the heat of the day, when the sky calms down. On his shoulders, a little lamb, exhausted, rests in safety. Blue shadows stretch over the creatures that gather around them.

Curious, a few sheep come to see the show: why so much energy, time, and empathy to save this little lost creature like so many? In the distance, a white house speaks of these secure shelters for wise herds, where it is good to take refuge while bleating together, while the mountains that surround it plunge one after the other into darkness.

There are also trees in this heavenly-looking universe. Tall, fine, their branches chiselled like lace touching the sky. A few rays of yellow light on the coats and bushes evoke the setting star which entrusts them with its last golden treasures.

The French painter Maurice Denis is a master craftsman of these gentle atmospheres, where the divine and the human meet as a matter of course. However, on a personal level, these years were not easy. For ten years, Marthe, his wife, has seen her health worsen, while the family still has five children to raise.

Taking care – like the good shepherd of the Gospel for whom no sheep, no lamb is too far, too fragile, too lost – then becomes a way of being, a final gesture of resistance. Soft. Tender.